A First Time for Everything
by lady-emeraldeyes09
Summary: The Doctor and Rose can't hide their feelings for each other any more, and this could mean serious consequences. Rose is affected by the Time Vortex in ways the Doctor is just beginning to understand. A character we know and love has been there all along.
1. Chapter 1

"Rose, I'm scared."

Rose stopped in her tracks and turned around to face the Doctor, who was frozen in his spot on the jump seat. She laced her fingers in his and gazed into his dark eyes. The soft blue glow of the TARDIS' control panel shone in them. Those eyes, that had seen unthinkable horrors and unnamable beauty, were now full of fear and hesitation.

The Doctor shook his head. "Rose, I- " He sighed and let go of her hand. "You don't understand what you're asking. You don't know what I'm capable of." His eyes were squinted in frustration. "I don't deserve this. After all I've done. I just – I don't deserve _you_."

The Doctor leaned into Rose's hand when he felt her soft skin caressing his cheek. "Doctor," she whispered, calculating every word before speaking, "if there's anyone in this world that knows you by now, it's me. I know you, and I love you for every bit of you." Rose placed her other hand on his chest and she could feel his hearts racing beneath his shirt. She stood on her toes and kissed him softly. He responded instinctively and deepened the kiss, exploring Rose's mouth and tasting her, wishing to etch her taste into his mind forever.

Rose broke free and her lips traveled down the Doctor's throat, planting kisses to his collarbone and setting his core on fire. Breathless, he lifted Rose into his arms and carried her to his barely-used bedroom, where she climbed down and stood once more in front of him. He hesitated again.

"Doctor, are you okay?" Rose's eyes gazed up at him in wonder; the Doctor could wait no longer to tell her.

"Rose, there is something you have to understand before anything else happens." The Doctor started pacing to calm the intense flame growing in his belly. "You're human. Human bodies, as complex as they are, are still simple when it comes to…being together."

Rose frowned. "What on earth do you mean?"

The Doctor sighed again, and ran his fingers through his hair. "It's not easy to explain." He looked at her. Rose, so beautiful and soft and _delicate_. Breakable. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Doctor –"

"People from Gallifrey, we – we connect with each other differently than with humans. More _intimately_ than with humans." He began pacing again. "When humans have – "

"Sex?" Rose continued.

"Yes, sex, it's almost all physical. Humans can have sex without any attachment to one another."

"And Time Lords?" Rose looked as if she could cry.

"Not just Time Lords, all Gallifreyans. Of course it's physical, but the majority of the connection is mental." The Doctor stopped pacing and slowly walked toward Rose, taking her head in his hands. "I don't know what that would do to a human. I don't want to hurt you," he repeated. "Do you remember how it felt to have the time vortex inside your head? Do you remember what could have happened to you? It felt wonderful, and so powerful at first, but then your head started hurting and the time vortex would have destroyed you if I hadn't taken it from you. That is what you could feel like… with me." The Doctor bowed his head and Rose gently kissed him.

"We can be the first," Rose reassured him. "If anything bad happens, we can stop."

"No, Rose, you don't understand. Once the connection has been made, I can't stop until I…" Defeated, he sat down on his bed. "If something bad happens, I can't break the connection. I would be inside your mind. I would feel what you feel, and vice versa. The mind of a Time Lord can consume you. Do you want to take that risk? Are you ready for that?"

Rose sat next to him and coaxed him to lie down beside her.

"I was ready for that the first moment you grabbed my hand and whispered _run._"

She started kissing him like she did in the control room, soft and deep. The Doctor groaned, the fire in his core rekindled. Rose straddled his hips and sat up on her feet, slowly unbuttoning his shirt and gauging his reactions. He didn't speak a word, but every brush of Rose's hand against his chest caused his hearts to race and his breathing to quicken.

Rose had always appreciated the Doctor's inability to hide his emotions, and now she reveled in the subtle changes in his eyes as she undressed for him. The most drastic change in his demeanor was the bulge that was slowly growing in his trousers. She could feel it underneath her, and the knowledge that she had this effect on him made her ever-so-glad that she had not worn knickers under her skirt.

The Doctor's hands were clenched at his side until now. Now, they were at Rose's hips, and with unprecedented strength he rolled her over and Rose lit up with laughter. He silenced her with another kiss, this time harder and with more desire. Groaning into Rose's mouth, his hands began to explore her body. Her curves opened to him willingly. The Doctor traced a path with his lips slowly down her neck and left tiny nibbles on her collarbone, Rose writhing beneath him as his hands found exactly where she longed to be touched. Her skirt flew across the room and hit the floor with lightning speed.

"Doctor…" Rose's moans were barely contained, and the Doctor could hear her heart speeding up as her breath caught in her throat every time his practiced hands went over her most sensitive spot. Suddenly he removed his hands and replaced them with his mouth. Rose's scent, her taste – it was enough to drive him wild. His erection strained against his trousers, a wet spot slowly forming as Rose drew near the edge.

"_Come for me, Rose._" The Doctor's gruff voice, full of desire, was enough to send Rose into what was truly the strongest climax of her life. Her body squirmed and her legs locked around the Doctor's neck. He smiled, satisfied with himself as Rose started to come down from her orgasm. Rose leapt up so fast she had to steady her head, but she quickly recovered and got to work on the Doctor's trousers when he stood up. She jerked back in surprise when the Doctor's erection popped out rather enthusiastically, and she giggled. The fire in the Doctor's belly was fanned by her smile, and with another playful growl he pushed her back down onto the soft bed. Hips spread wide, Rose let out an audible gasp when he first entered her. His girth was sizeable, larger than others she had been with.

That was when she _really _felt him. Rose could feel the Doctor's mind prodding into her own, and did not resist. His entire being flooded her awareness, to where all she could feel was what he felt. Swirling circles peppered her vision and all she could hear was his breathy moans in her ear. "Rose…" The Doctor's voice had an otherworldly sound to it, part English and part what Rose knew, with the Doctor in her head, to be Gallifreyan. Their senses were as one, their climax building together as their bodies met in a rhythm as old as time itself. She knew the instant the Doctor came inside her, because his mind flooded hers with a blinding light and she was suddenly hyperaware of everything around her. Nothing existed in that moment but the two of them.

Then the Doctor ended it just as quickly as it started. He pulled out of her and disconnected his mind from hers. Rose was momentarily blinded, but a few blinks cleared her vision. When she could see again, the Doctor was already sitting up on the edge of the bed, running his fingers through his hair nervously.

"I don't believe it." He laughed. "It actually worked. We did it." He looked over his shoulder at Rose's glowing naked body.

"That was _incredible_," Rose groaned. She sat up again, her head swimming. The color drained from her face and she fell back down onto the bed, instantly asleep. The Doctor panicked.

"Rose! Rose, are you alright? ROSE!" He jumped up and quickly located his sonic in the pocket of his jacket, scanning Rose's body. The screwdriver indicated no serious problems, just a human brain that needed a rest. He checked her pulse and brushed her sweat-soaked hair from her face, extremely relieved. She smiled in her sleep. He would take her to the medic room if she didn't wake up in a few hours, but for now she seemed to be okay. He covered her with the light cotton quilt on the bed, slipped his trousers back on and proceeded to the kitchen, smiling.

Surely she would want a cuppa when she woke up.


	2. Chapter 2

Rose dreamed of a planet with a burnt-orange sky. A planet with two suns that had fields of crimson grass and forests of silver trees as far as the eye could see. She stood at the top of a snow-capped mountain and listened to the forest's morning song. She had never been here before, but it felt like home. A city stood proud in the distance, a glittering metropolis under what appeared to be a large glass dome. Hours passed in seconds, as if the entire planet obeyed its own laws of time.

"_Rose…_" The Doctor's voice wafted through the mountain breeze to her, distant and faint. The sight of this beautiful planet started to fade, and Rose strained her eyes to locate him.

"_Rose…_" Her eyes opened and the Doctor was kneeling over her. "Ah, there we are!" _There was that gorgeous smile._ "Don't sit up quite yet," he advised her as if he was reading her mind. "You've been asleep for about twelve hours and you'll probably be a bit dizzy." He buzzed over her body with his sonic, and when he was satisfied that she was going to be fine, he gave her a soft kiss. "Welcome back."

Rose smiled at him; she loved how protective he had become of her over the last several months. She rolled over to her side and her head swam. Closing her eyes, she sat still again to steady her head. Parts of her body that hadn't hurt in _years_ were sore.

"Ugh… we didn't drink last night by any chance, did we?"

"No, but the TARDIS tells me it could be a couple more hours before you feel like yourself again." Rose opened her eyes; the Doctor was starting to look concerned.

"Doctor, I had a strange dream. I was on this planet, just standing there looking in the distance. The sky was orange…" Her voice trailed off when she saw his expression. "What?"

"Tell me more about the planet, Rose. It's very important." His brow was furrowed and he was frowning.

"Um, there was red grass and a domed city, and – Doctor, where are you going?" He had stood up and stormed out of his room before she could finish. Puzzled, Rose crawled out of the bed and put on his duster that was draped across a chair, following him to the TARDIS control room. She laced her arms around his waist, coaxing him to face her.

"What is it, Doctor?"

The Doctor was clearly fighting off the urge to cry, or scream, or both. "What you saw was Gallifrey, my home planet. What happened last night must have affected you." He took Rose's head in his hands. "Tell me, Rose – what did you see last night while I was inside you?" Rose blushed. "Inside your head, I mean," he finished with a smile.

"I dunno, there were these circles and your voice sounded different, and I definitely remember a bright light." The Doctor let go of her head and started pacing around the control room.

"Rose, do you have any idea what this could mean? We have to find out if – "

Finally he noticed what she was wearing. "Is that my duster?" His smile widened as his eyes traveled down her body, taking notice of the lack of underclothes. Rose leaned against the console, showing off her legs. "It looks good on you."

Before she knew it the Doctor was standing between her legs and nibbling on her neck. Her legs turned to jelly as his hands retraced her body with such intimate knowledge that it made her weak. He parted her legs and she didn't hesitate. Rose arched her back and waited, waited the split-second it took for the Doctor to unzip his trousers and pull her to him by the hips, and gasped when he entered her again.

The Doctor growled in her ear, needier this time. "_Oh __**fuck**__, Rose…_" The sound of the word, so filthy coming from his mouth, yet so appropriate, sent electricity down Rose's spine as he began his rhythm. Supporting herself on the console, she felt the Doctor's mind trying to slip into hers once more, but this time her mind resisted. "_Rose, please…_" The resistance was denying him pleasure. He begged her with such vulnerability that she couldn't hold him out of her head any longer. His mind flooded hers and suddenly the Doctor's pleasure was her pleasure. His thoughts and sensations were racing through her head; the feel of her arse in his hands, the smell of her hair, her breathy moans at his ear, the feel of her deepest ridges squeezing him, all of it flowing through him and into her, consuming her, all at once.

"_Say my name, Rose,_" the Doctor whispered. He sounded possessed with otherworldly power again.

"Doctor – " His name felt like magic on her lips, but before she could finish he stopped her.

"_My real name, Rose. Say it._" His rhythm was picking up speed, and his breath came out ragged.

"I can't – "

"_DO IT._" His command came out with such power it scared Rose for a moment before the words came out; her lips formed syllables she had never heard and her mind filled with a bright light. Her entire body gave out the instant the Doctor disconnected from her, and he was swift enough to catch her before she hit the floor.

"ROSE! _ROSE!_ Rose, wake up!" He tapped the side of her face and Rose slowly opened her eyes to smile at him, and then fell asleep again. The Doctor zipped his trousers back up and lifted Rose in his arms, sprinting with her to the TARDIS's infirmary.

Scans indicated that Rose's life functions were still working and no permanent damage would result from this latest connection with her. She would be okay with more sleep, probably more than last time.

But he knew, like the TARDIS insisted on reminding him, that this couldn't happen again, or it would destroy her delicate human mind. His damned Time Lord stamina kept him ready to go this time – and Rose would pay the price if she were to wake up prematurely.

He carried her back to her own bed when the scans finished. He had already taken his duster off of her, so she was naked. Taking care not to jostle her, he got a long t-shirt from her wardrobe and slipped it over her head. That she didn't immediately roll into one of her comical sleeping positions worried him, so he resolved to stay with her in her room until she woke up. He looked around the room for a place to sit, and jumped with surprise when the TARDIS materialized a comfortable armchair for him next to Rose's bed. Exhausted, he slumped down in the chair.

Soon he was asleep. He dreamed of a planet with a burnt-orange sky. A planet with two suns that had fields of crimson grass and forests of silver trees…

_Wait…_

"Doctor, is that you?" _He knew that voice anywhere._ He whirled around, searching for the source of the sound.

"Rose? Where are you?" He couldn't see her anywhere. He patted his jacket down, but his sonic was missing.

"You can't see me here. I'm not really here, just sorta riding along with your mind. I'm okay, Doctor, stop worrying about me. Get some sleep, make yourself some tea, and I'll see you soon." The '_soon_' echoed and faded into nothing. The Doctor dropped to his knees, overwhelmed at the sound of Rose's disembodied voice drifting off through the silver trees and becoming part of their song.

And for the first time in a long time, the last remaining Time Lord cried. He cried for Rose, he cried for his home planet, he cried for all the people he had wronged and for the loves he had lost and he cried until he could cry no more. Hours had probably passed, but here in his mind, on his home planet, those hours reduced to seconds, and finally he was ready to wake up.

He opened his eyes and nearly sobbed with relief to see Rose fast asleep on her stomach, a smile spread across her beautiful face. It disarmed him to not know how much time had passed, but he decided to just let Rose sleep. They could talk when she woke up again.


	3. Chapter 3

"So are you saying we can't…?" Rose trailed off, not willing to accept the rest of the sentence.

"Yes." As much as he hated it, the Doctor knew that having sex with Rose any more was just too dangerous for her. After their last round, Rose slept for nearly eighteen hours, and she hadn't slept a minute since, two days later. He hoped she would crash soon, because he didn't want her to be permanently affected by his lack of control. "That's what I'm saying."

Rose's face fell. "Oh. It's not me, is it?" She took his hand, and she was shaking.

"No, of course it's not you. I told you from the start, I don't want to hurt you." He squeezed her hand and let go. He couldn't look at her. It physically pained him to see Rose so hurt, but he would rather hurt her feelings than her mind. "You should probably get some rest. You've not slept in two days." Rose sniffled and slowly trudged back to her own bedroom, and the Doctor didn't look up until he heard her door click shut. His eyes were stinging. It wasn't until he blinked that he realized he was crying as well.

Saving the Queen from werewolves, coupled with Rose's short overalls and flattering black stockings, had caused the Doctor to forget all about what he knew he had to tell her. His damned hormones had raged the entire trip, and he was nearly unable to keep Rose off of him when they got back into the TARDIS. She was obviously hurt when he turned her down. It took almost two hours to explain to her everything that had happened.

Now he wished he could take it all back. "_DAMN!_" he screamed, pounding the TARDIS console with his fist. It groaned in protest. He sat on the jump seat angrily, his head in his hands. The Doctor, the man of iron emotions, could barely contain his anger at himself.

The sounds coming from Rose's room quieted at exactly twenty-three minutes past midnight Earth time. He had spent the past four hours thinking of any possible loophole in which he and Rose could still be together without it hurting her. He could think of nothing. Defeated, he resigned to his own bedroom and went to sleep.

::-::-::

Rose couldn't sleep. Her mind was restless, and her heart ached for the Doctor.

If there was anybody in the world, the _universe_, that knew the Doctor, it was her, and she knew there was something else going on. She paced quietly in her room until she heard the Doctor's footsteps echo down the hall to his bedroom. Fifteen minutes later she snuck out of her room and cracked open the Doctor's double doors. He was fast asleep on his back, arms splayed over his head. His eyebrows were furrowed and his breathing was shallow and rapid. He had fallen asleep fully clothed, trainers and all.

A floor board creaked under her foot, and the Doctor's head tossed back and forth as he mumbled one word -"_Rose…_"

Rose's breath froze in her chest. _He must be dreaming about me_, she thought. _I'll surprise him._

As quietly as she could, she tiptoed to the end of the Doctor's bed and slipped under his comforter, making her way to the top of his trousers. He stirred slightly but didn't awaken. Ever so slowly she unbuckled his belt and unzipped the fly of his trousers. It was getting hot under the comforter so she took it off of him. The Doctor's arms flew to his side and she froze. Once his breathing deepened again, she reached inside his trousers and took hold of him. She noticed his body temperature was somewhat lower than hers, even after being under the blanket. Instantly the Doctor's cock responded to her touch. She stroked his length, watching it grow and harden. The Doctor groaned happily in his sleep but still did not wake up. Rose was getting nervous – not only was she unsure exactly what she intended to do, but what if the Doctor woke up and saw her? Would he get mad?

She decided to take the chance that he wouldn't.

Keeping her eyes on the Doctor's face, Rose took his head in her mouth, lightly brushing it with her tongue and gauging his reactions. His hips bucked up slightly when she took it out, and he sighed deeply.

"_Oh, Rose…_" he moaned. Rose smiled and took him in her mouth again, this time halfway down the shaft, and worked her tongue up and down the underside. His breathing quickened and she could feel his pulse in her mouth. She smiled and began a slow rhythm, still watching his face. His hips bucked again, slightly, but just enough to aid her. The Doctor's moans became more audible but he remained asleep.

Rose didn't want the Doctor to be the one having all the fun, so while she worked on the Doctor she reached between her own legs, knowing exactly how to push her own buttons.

_Well that's weird._ She felt no pleasure at all doing it to herself.

She tried again, getting frustrated, and instantly her mind seemed to expand outside her head, prodding at the Doctor's. It scared her but she couldn't stop it. The Doctor's mind did not resist to her own, and suddenly she saw his dreams. _He __**was**__ dreaming about her!_ The rhythm her mouth was keeping gave her pleasure, and finally her own hand did as well. She couldn't believe it – it was just like the Doctor had done while they had sex. Her rhythm and hand sped up, and she knew the Doctor could feel it too. At this point she honestly didn't care if the Doctor was awake or not.

Rose reached her orgasm the instant the Doctor did, and outside her mind she could hear the Doctor gasping, finally awake. She shrouded both of their minds in a bright light, and she knew the Doctor was blinded as well. He shouted her name in ecstasy – "_OH, ROSE!" _He could barely move or speak; loud, ethereal moans were all he could muster as he writhed beneath her. She swallowed his seed, a thick and sweet fluid, and raised her head to meet his eyes. The expression on his face was priceless.

"Hello, Doctor." She smiled at him like a child that had just been caught.

The Doctor smiled back at her, and his eyebrows were playfully furrowed at her. He propped up on his elbows. "Hello, Rose," he growled.

Rose crawled up the bed and snuggled by his side, nuzzling her face into his chest.

"I see you've found a loophole," the Doctor commented. "But how did you make a connection with me?"

"I have no idea," Rose said, and she shrugged. "It just sort of… happened. I couldn't stop it."

The Doctor was puzzled. The past two times he and Rose had connected like that, it had rendered her unconscious, and this time she was just as lively as ever. _Maybe…_

"You know what I think?" He began stroking Rose's hair. "I think when you took the time vortex into your head, it changed the way your mind works. I think once my mind connected with yours, before, it finally figured out what it was supposed to do. D'you know what I mean?" He looked down at Rose, who was frowning with confusion. She shook her head.

"No."

"It _means_ that as long as your mind makes a connection with mine, instead of vice versa, you'll be okay. It also means I was – well, I was –" The Doctor couldn't quite say it.

"_Wrong_?" Rose finished for him, laughing.

The Doctor gave a small giggle and kissed the top of Rose's head. "Yes. I was wrong."

"In that case…" Rose sat up and straddled the Doctor's hips, leaning forward to loosen his tie. "We've got a _long_ night ahead of us, Doctor. I do hope you're well-rested."


	4. Chapter 4

For the first time he could ever remember, the Doctor lost track of time.

Sure, in his dreams time seemed to have its own laws, but his waking hours he felt every nanosecond tick past like it was a lifetime, and at any given moment he could tell Rose exactly what time it would be on a dozen different planets.

But now, with Rose's euphoric rhythm astride his hips capturing his entire awareness, he realized he had no idea how much time had passed since Rose had given him what was admittedly the greatest wakeup call he could think of.

And he couldn't care any less.

Rose's mind was a blur. Her sensations were enhanced by his sensitive Time Lord sense of touch, and the Doctor was truly awestruck by her ability to control it. She truly was incredible.

With a playful growl, the Doctor took Rose under her legs and lifted her off the bed with unprecedented strength, taking Rose by surprise and sending her into a fit of laughter. He carried her to the far end of his room and supported her back on the wall. Taking the cue, Rose tightened her legs around his hips and let out an ecstatic moan as he began thrusting her against the wall. Her breath came out in short spurts and her skin glistened with sweat. The Doctor knew her release was imminent. He took both of her wrists in one hand and pinned them to the wall above her head, burying his face in the crook of her neck and biting the delicate skin there, his other hand splayed out on the small of her back.

Rose's orgasm took over her entire body, and she cried out his name with every thrust. Finally it ended and she opened her eyes to look at the Doctor. He winked at her. Rose laughed and lowered her legs, leading the Doctor back to his bed.

She wasn't finished with him just yet.

::-::-::

The Doctor was asleep before Rose was. She felt satisfied watching him conk out within a few short minutes after they had finished, breathless, completely spent, and covered in a fine layer of sweat. He had collapsed beside her, smiling, and whispered a quick 'Oh, Rose' before closing his eyes. His Time Lord stamina had held for – Rose checked his bedside clock – _three hours_!

Rose laid her head on the Doctor's chest and closed her eyes, allowing the steady rhythm of his two heartbeats to lull her to sleep.

She dreamed of an elaborate ceremony in which her hands were bound to the Doctor's in the center of a red, grassy field. The man she was bound to didn't look like the Doctor but still she knew it was him. His mind felt the same inside of hers, so familiar and comfortable. She gazed into his eyes, infinitely deep and shining for her, and the song of the silver forests echoed around them. She could hear his thoughts, and his voice resonated inside her head in a language she had heard before but still couldn't understand.

Suddenly the Doctor jerked awake, knocking Rose off of him and rolling her over the edge of the bed. Rose shrieked before she hit the floor, now fully awake. The Doctor sat up in his bed, gasping for breath, his eyes distant and afraid. "Rose, where are you!?" He looked around frantically for her. Finally Rose was able to untangle herself from the mess of sheets that fell to the floor with her, and she raised her hand to get his attention. "Down here, Doctor! " She smiled at him and blew her hair from her face.

The Doctor looked extremely relieved to see her. He lay back down with his hand over his eyes. Rose climbed back up on the bed with him, and she stroked his stomach, where the fine trail of black hair led from his navel to the top of his bed sheet that was covering his pelvis. "Bad dream?"

The Doctor kissed the top of her head. "More of a memory than a dream, from the first time I got married. It was strange." His eyebrows furrowed in thought. "That was an incredibly long time ago, like it wasn't even me that it happened to."

"You know, I had the _same_ dream." Rose smiled. "I think that's going to happen a lot more than not, sleeping here with you."

"What? You had the same dream?" The Doctor sat up again. "Your mind must have connected with mine again. Did you… do anything while I was sleeping?" A smile played at the edge of his lips but Rose knew he was serious.

"No, after you fell asleep I just laid my head on your chest and went to sleep too." Rose scratched her head. "I didn't notice anything, really, until I started dreaming. You looked different. It's weird that we had the same dream but I didn't think it was a big deal."

"Rose, we have to be careful. You know your mind doesn't work like mine does, and too much exposure to mine could damage yours."

Rose chuckled. "You men and your ego. I already know you're clever."

"Rose, I'm _serious_. I want you safe. It's already clear that being exposed to the time vortex changed the physiology of your brain, but we need to dig deeper. Come on, let's go to the TARDIS' infirmary and do some more tests." The Doctor got out of the bed and put his trousers on, and Rose followed him out of his room. He held her hand as they walked to the infirmary.

"So what's the verdict, Doctor?" Forty-five minutes had passed and Rose was growing tired of having the two dozen electrodes sticking to her hair. The wires led all around the room and the Doctor was staring at a screen, puzzled.

"It seems that your brain, while still human, has been changed somehow," mused the Doctor, dragging out the last syllable as his finger traced down the screen. "You're no Time Lord," he glanced sideways at Rose, who stuck her tongue out at him, and gazed at the screen once more, "but you seem to have developed a low-level telepathic field inside your head." Eyebrows still furrowed, he slowly walked across the room to Rose and began plucking the electrodes off of her head. Rose protested when the glue stuck to her hair, so she told him she'd do it herself.

"A telepathic field, huh? What exactly does that mean?" She grimaced when one electrode pulled out a small chunk of hair, and she swore before continuing. "Can I read minds or something?" Squinting her eyes at the Doctor, she tried to guess what he was thinking. "I have no idea what's going through your mind right now, so I'd say not."

The Doctor paced the floor, running his fingers through his hair and pulling on it in frustration. "It means you can connect telepathically with anyone else that has one. Or maybe just me. I don't know. A lot has happened in the past couple of days since we rescued the Queen from a werewolf and we… well you know. You were there." He stopped to turn and look at her. "This could be good." His smile lit up his entire face and he dashed across the room, stealing Rose's breath with a kiss.

"I have no idea what you're thinking but I like it." Rose pulled the last electrode out of her hair and motioned to kiss the Doctor again, when her mobile phone started ringing. She took it out of her pocket and rolled her eyes. "It's Mickey," she huffed, answering it. He could hear Mickey's hurried chatter on the other end of the line.

The Doctor left the infirmary and headed towards the console room. Standing in the corner of the room was a young woman with long dark hair and mousy but attractive features. Just as quickly as he saw her, she vanished. Somehow he knew he had seen her before, but not even the TARDIS could identify her – he hit the side of the monitor in frustration when the screen flashed "LIFE FORM NOT IDENTIFIED". He supposed it was just his imagination. He and Rose had hardly left his room since they left Torchwood Estate, so maybe he was just going stir crazy. He decided to refocus his efforts on Rose and Mickey's energetic conversation echoing down the hallway.

As much as he didn't care for Mickey, he knew Rose still did, so he readied himself for a trip back to Earth. As if on cue, Rose dashed out of the infirmary and stood at his side. She had a mischievous smile.

"Doctor, you're going to want to investigate this one. Weird lights in the sky, UFOs, and kids vanishing from a school."


	5. Chapter 5

Rose sat resolutely against the wall where she had nearly met her doom, and refused to move for two hours, insisting that the Doctor would show up and take her back any second. She knew it couldn't be possible, but still she prayed to herself that it would happen. Somehow, she _knew_ he would come back for her. He always did. Finally her sobs subsided, and Pete coaxed her into standing. Her legs shook beneath her, so he decided to carry her to his car.

Rose remained silent from Torchwood to Pete's manor. She withdrew into herself for nearly a week, refusing to come out of her new bedroom. Rose hated living in the enormous house, being so used to a two-bedroom flat for most of her life, and once she started talking again she spent the majority of her waking hours wandering around in a stupor. Finally after two months she started acting like herself during the day, but in her mind she thought of nothing but the Doctor. Even the announcement of Jackie's pregnancy couldn't bring her to be happy.

Every night her mind searched for him, and every night she fell asleep in the twilight hours, exhausted and frustrated, driven mad by the echo of his voice in her head, and she dreamed about him. Rose knew her exposure to the time vortex had changed the way her mind worked, but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine she would have a connection like this to him.

Soon the voice in her head grew clearer, and she was able to make out the Doctor's words: "_come find me, Rose…" _She knew she had to be able to talk to her mother about this. The Doctor was trying to get through to her, to see her again.

It wasn't difficult to convince her mother and father to travel with her to see the Doctor. Mickey was resistant; he and Rose were not together, but Mickey was still bitter towards him. Jackie and Pete had let him live in the manor until he was able to afford his own place, and he had kept to himself and refused to talk to anyone other than Jackie and Pete. Now he sat in the back seat of the military-style car with Jackie, fuming because he had allowed himself to be talked into coming. He kept his arms crossed and grumbled frequently to himself, but he gladly helped Jackie when she needed to take a break and even held her hair back when she became seasick on the ferry across the channel from Denmark to Norway.

The voice grew stronger in Rose's mind as they traveled farther into Norway, and instinct took over when Rose started driving more than twenty-four hours into the trip. At last they arrived at an empty beach and Rose parked the car on the sand. She got out of the car and ran out onto the beach, searching for him. _This has to be the place_, Rose thought to herself.

In the corner of her eye she saw a tall woman with long, dark hair, but before she could identify who she was, she heard a soft, familiar whirring sound and a ghostly image of the Doctor appeared before her on the beach. Her heart caught in her throat.

"Where are you?"


	6. Meanwhile

_I don't know where I am._

_I just know I'm running._

_Sometimes it's like I've lived a thousand lives in a thousand places._

_I'm born, I live, I die._

_And always there's the Doctor._

_Always I'm running to save the Doctor again, and again, and again._

_And he hardly ever hears me._

_But I've always been there._

_Right from the very beginning._

_Right from the day he started running._

_I tried to save the ninth face of the Doctor from going aboard Satellite Five._

_I stood inside the TARDIS but he couldn't hear me._

_I watched as he got a new face, and then I died again._

_I saw him save the Earth onboard an alien ship, where he lost and regrew his hand._

_Earth fired the first shot, and I died again._

_He never saw me._

_I tried to save him from heartbreak as his blond companion waited for him on the beach._

_The companion saw me, but the Doctor did not._

_I died when the universes sealed off. My body was still in the Doctor's universe._

_I watched him run toward the blond companion he loved while the world was ending,_

_And I ran just as fast, to stop the Dalek before it took its shot._

_It shot me before it saw the Doctor, and I died._

_I watched as a man that looked just like the Doctor destroyed the Dalek race._

_I died as he sent the twenty-seven planets back to their homes._

_I saw the Doctor with a new face and I began traveling with him._

_I didn't know who he was._

_The eleventh face of the Doctor knows who I am now, and so do I._

_My name is Clara Oswald, and I was born to save the Doctor._


	7. Chapter 7

It took a few hours for the zeppelin to arrive after the Time Lord and DoctorDonna had left. Rose cried for nearly an hour in the Doctor's arms, mourning the life she could never have back. The echo of the TARDIS engines lasted for several minutes, scaring away the birds and leaving the Bay eerily quiet while Rose's sobs rocked her entire body. The Doctor knew it was nothing against him that she was crying, and took it as a good sign that she had chosen his arms as her safe place to cry. The three of them sat in silence until the roar of Pete's zeppelin could be heard in the distance.

Rose was the first to get on the zeppelin and take her seat toward the middle, one seat away from the window. Her face was still blotchy and her eyes were red and swollen. It pulled at the Doctor's heart that she was still able to look up at him and smile. She patted the seat next to her and he sat down. Rose took his hand, and he noticed she was shaking.

"I'm glad you're here." Those were the first words she had spoken in hours, and her voice cracked a little. She cleared her throat and continued. "I really am. I'm sorry about earlier, it's just that there's been a lot happen today and it was a lot to take in, just to have him leave like that." She looked sideways at him and smiled. "But now you're here, and that makes it a lot better." She paused, stroking his hand with her thumb. "Doctor."

Without another word, Rose climbed into his lap and put her left hand on his chest. She could feel his single heart beating under her hand, its rhythm picking up at her touch. Her right hand snaked behind his head and she began stroking his thick black hair. She leaned against the window, cool on her back, and the repetitive motion of her hand, combined with the soft texture of the Doctor's thick hair, soothed her to sleep. Her face nestled in the crook of his neck. The Doctor stroked the side of her face, smiling.

"She all right?" Jackie sat next to this new Doctor on their zeppelin, handing him a cup of tea.

"Yeah, she's had a long day. Can't blame her for going to sleep – it's a long way from here back to London. Thanks," he finished, taking the tea from her.

"Didn't know if you liked tea or not, but I figured since it helped you when you regenerated that you'd still drink it." Jackie smiled at him and looked at the floor. "You know, I hated you for a long time."

"Jackie, you don't have to –"

"But I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate everything you've done for Rose," she interrupted. "She was _mad_ about you when you left, crying for months before she was able to get herself together and meet up with Torchwood to find a way back to you. You were all she could talk about. She loves you, you know," she continued before the Doctor could interject. "And now that you're back, for good, I know she'll finally be happy. And I want you to know that I love you too, for making Rose so happy and giving her what the other Doctor couldn't." She looked at him again, tears shining in her eyes.

The Doctor gazed down at Rose, who was smiling in her sleep. He took a sip of his tea, appreciating its healing warmth, and smiled back at Jackie. "I'm still amazed at everything that happened today, but I hope you know I love your daughter more than life itself and I aim to spend the rest of my life proving it to her." Jackie patted him on his shoulder, kissed his cheek and went back up front to be with Pete and Tony.

He ran his fingers through Rose's hair and paused to take it all in. All these new sensations were so different – his sense of touch, his memory, even the way the tea Jackie gave him left a sweet taste in his mouth, none of it was as painfully _sharp_ as it was when he was a full-fledged Time Lord, and he was able to appreciate it without being overwhelmed by it. He was so grateful that Jackie had eased everyone's transition when it came to accepting him as the Doctor, and not just some inferior clone.

_Jackie Tyler, the rock of the family_, he mused.

It was so strange to the Doctor to just sit there, letting time pass on its own. His Time Lord sense of time had retained, but it didn't cause him to become restless while sitting still. Every second ticked by equally slowly, but finally he was able to enjoy them without the urgency he had experienced as a Time Lord to keep moving. Now he took it slow, relishing in the way Rose nuzzled closer to him each time the zeppelin shook, and how the condensation built up on the window each time they passed through a cloud. Small things that his Time Lord counterpart would probably miss, but he never would. Not anymore.

He kissed the top of Rose's head and held her close. "I love you," he whispered into her hair, smiling as he realized just how lucky he was to be here with her.


	8. Chapter 8

The Doctor carried Rose to her bed when they made it to London just after dark, and tucked her in like he used to on the TARDIS. Finally feeling the effects that a long day had on his new human body, he decided he would go to bed too – but where? Jackie insisted he share a room with Rose, but he refused. "Rose needs her space right now," he told her.

Pete and Jackie put Tony to bed, and the Doctor wandered about, looking for a room that called out to him. His mind was still racing. The events of the day had him reeling; he didn't want to fully believe quite yet that this was all true, that at last he had the chance to make a life with Rose. He came to a sitting room adjacent to the kitchen, with a rather large telly mounted on the wall. Locating the remote, he stretched out on the plush velvet couch and flipped through the channels, settling on a program about space travel. His eyes got heavier and heavier by the minute, and before he knew it he was asleep.

He dreamed of a war-ravaged planet with a burnt-orange sky. A planet with two suns that had fields of crimson grass and forests of silver trees as far as the eye could see. He stood at the top of a snow-capped mountain and listened to the forest's morning song. A city stood proud in the distance, a glittering metropolis under what appeared to be a large glass dome. Hours passed in seconds, as if the entire planet obeyed its own laws of time.

"_Doctor…_" Rose's voice pierced the song of the forest, drifting slowly to him in the wind.

"_Doctor…_"

Finally he opened his eyes, and there she was. Rose stood above him, inches from his face, and she looked worried. Sunshine peeked through the thick curtains, but his Time Lord brain knew it was well past sunrise.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up. Tony has been banging about for hours and you just snored louder." Rose smiled at him. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm all right. It's past noon, isn't it?" The Doctor's body felt stiff, and he knew he had been asleep for nearly fourteen hours.

"It sure is. Want a cuppa, sleepyhead?" _That smile would put the brightest sun to shame_, he thought.

"Yeah, all right."

Soft lips suddenly pressed against his, and Rose was off to the kitchen before he could react. That woke him up. He sat up as quickly as he could muster, his eyes refusing to focus.

"Mum and Dad took Tony to a park for a while. I want to take you out today, Doctor. What do you think?" He could hear Rose bustling about the kitchen, and before long the kettle whistled.

"Yeah, that sounds great." He couldn't think of a better way to spend his first day as a Normal Human Being.

His eyes finally focused just in time to see Rose coming through the kitchen and sitting beside him with a platter and two cups of tea. She was already fully dressed and had styled her hair. He looked down at himself – the blue suit and purple shirt he had gotten from the TARDIS were now wrinkled and his hair was probably sticking up on one side. As if she was reading his mind, Rose reached out to him and smoothed his hair down, her hand hovering on the side of his face.

Suddenly tea seemed a lot less interesting.

Maintaining eye contact with Rose, the Doctor placed his tea cup on the coffee table and slid closer to her. He ran his fingers through her hair and held the back of her neck, slowly inching closer to her face. Rose closed the gap and kissed him, and he couldn't help but smile into her mouth.

She broke it off first. "So, erm, why don't you go ahead and take a shower? I'm sure Dad's clothes will fit you and we can get you some stuff today." Her face had turned red, the Doctor noticed. He stood up and made his way to the bathroom (at least he still had a sense of direction), where Rose had laid out a pair of jeans and a plain black tee shirt for him to wear.

While the Doctor was in the shower, Rose hurried about, cleaning and re-cleaning the already spotless kitchen. She didn't know what to do with herself; usually being around the Doctor meant always being on the go, places to discover and all. The TARDIS coral piece that the other Doctor had given them was still on the zeppelin, and she couldn't help but think about it now.

Lost in her thoughts, Rose didn't notice when the Doctor came out of the bathroom with her father's clothes on. He cleared his throat and she turned to look at him, and ended up staring. The jeans, which fit well on her Dad's more built body, hung loose on the Doctor's lanky frame. He was rubbing his hair dry with a towel, and the motion caused the tee shirt to lift and show his lower abdomen. A thin trail of dark hair led from his navel to the top of his jeans…

"Is this all right?" He interrupted her thoughts, and she realized he had noticed her staring at him. He was smiling shyly at her. She blushed and looked at the floor.

"Yeah, that's great." She laughed, embarrassed. "Sorry 'bout that. Now, erm, do you want to go get some lunch or something first?"

"Lunch sounds great."

Rose padded across the kitchen and took the Doctor's hands, snuggling into him like she used to. His arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace and Rose sighed into his neck.

"Just like old times, eh?" The Doctor's voice vibrated his throat at Rose's forehead and she laughed.

"Sure is."


	9. Chapter 9

_I do not belong here._

_My body is sleeping but my soul is here, where the man that looks like the Doctor's tenth face lives with his blond companion._

_I know I am here for a reason, so I watch._

_They are lying together on a vehicle, on the shores of this Earth's equivalent of London._

_Laughter drifts over the sound of the waves, and they point to the stars, naming them._

_They are happy._

_Perhaps this is what I am supposed to see._

_The Doctor, living a normal life._

_I don't know where I am._

_And I don't know where I'm going._

_I am always running to the Doctor, but this man is not the Doctor I seek._

_This one is happy and will never be alone again._

_This one does not need to be saved._


	10. Chapter 10

"For the last time, Doctor, I'm not telling you where we're going! Just keep that blindfold on." Rose was driving her car and had been trying to make the Doctor lose track of where they were by blindfolding him with his new tie and driving round in circles for nearly two hours now, but his Time Lord sense of direction prevailed. They had driven around London all day, going to half a dozen different shops to purchase him new clothes, and he had gotten a good sense of the city's layout.

_I know where we are, and I know that it's exactly eight hours and twelve minutes past noon and it's probably dark out. I don't need my eyes to tell me that_, he thought. But he decided to let Rose think she got the best of him anyway.

"All right, you win. Are we nearly there?"

Rose laughed and parked the car, and finally reached behind his head to untie the blindfold. "Here we are!" The building in front of them indicated that they were at a local pub, and a large neon sign out front read "KARAOKE NIGHT" in flashing pink letters. "Remember when I would have my radio playing on the TARDIS and I would tune in to Earth stations and challenge you on who knew the most lyrics?" Her mischievous grin was a mile wide.

The Doctor squinted his eyes at her. "And?"

"_And_…tonight my favorite pub is having their weekly karaoke contest and _you_," she said, poking him in the chest, "are going to be my partner. Come on!" Rose opened her door and ran to the other side of the car, quite literally dragging the Doctor out before he could protest.

Everyone in the pub cheered them when they came in, obviously recognizing Rose, who was still dragging him through the crowd as the piano introduction to a familiar Journey song came over the speaker system. They both clambered onstage and Rose tossed him a microphone. She belted out the first line with professional finesse.

"_Just a small town girl,_" she tossed her hair back, "_livin' in a lonely world… she took the midnight train goin' anywhere…_"

The crowd loved her.

She gestured at him to continue, and his own memory and voice surprised him. "_Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit_," he sang, smiling as the crowd cheered him on, "_he took the midnight train goin' anywhere…_"

The two of them completed the song together, their enthusiasm building as the crowd's energy became tangible. When the music faded out and the crowd gave them a standing ovation, the Doctor swept Rose into his arms and dipped her down for a kiss. The pub lit up with applause and they took a bow. The pair held hands and dashed back out of the pub, back to Rose's car. The Doctor opened Rose's door for her, and she kissed his cheek and sat at the wheel, where she waited for him to get in.

They drove toward the beach, about an hour off, and most of the people had cleared off by the time they got there. The moon was high in the sky, and the stars glittered brightly – Rose had missed them when they started vanishing and she was grateful to have them back. Rose parked her car on the sand and the two of them stretched out on the hood. The Doctor, for the first time in his life, was unfamiliar with these particular constellations, so he and Rose made up a few of their own. Hours passed, and soon they got tired. Rose snuggled into him, appreciating his new body warmth. As a full Time Lord, his temperature had been a few degrees lower than hers and sometimes getting cozy with him would leave her chilled.

"What time is it?" Rose sounded groggy, and before she could reach for her phone the Doctor answered her.

"Two hours and twenty-eight minutes past midnight, love." The last word slipped out of his mouth before he could help it, and he looked down at Rose to gauge her reaction to it. She seemed to like it; her sleepy smile nuzzled into his shirt when he made eye contact with her.

"We should probably head home. Mum will have my head if we're not back by sunrise." Rose snorted and sent them both into a fit of laughter.

They rode back home in comfortable silence, holding hands over the gear shift. It was a good thing that Rose had a key to the front door, or Rose's prediction of Jackie's wrath would have proven true. The Doctor followed Rose toward her room until they got to the sitting room where he had spent the night. Rose took his hand before he could go back to the couch.

"Come with me, Doctor. My bed is a lot more comfortable than that sofa."


	11. Chapter 11

The Doctor smoothed his hair down for the hundredth time. Rose's bedclothes were made of an impossibly soft material – probably expensive Egyptian cotton – and it felt so cold against his heated skin. Rose had dashed off to her adjacent bathroom to ready herself, so he made himself useful and took off his new suit to climb under the sheets. The bright fuchsia color probably made him look even more red. His single heart was pounding, and the Doctor wondered momentarily if he would suffer from a stroke before he would be able to see Rose. Finally the doorknob on the bathroom door wiggled, and the Doctor's patience was well rewarded.

Rose had tousled her long blond hair and touched up her makeup. Best of all was what she was wearing; at one of the shops Rose had seen something and refused to let him see it, and she even hid it in the trunk of her car after she bought it. He was transfixed, following the incredible curve of her hips that the see-through babydoll dress barely concealed. Rose leaned against the door frame, her eyes smoldering.

"Like what you see, Doctor?" A smile played at her lips and she stifled a chuckle at his expression.

The Doctor was speechless. His mind remembered a dozen different times when he saw Rose's lovely body, but this was brand new to him. Different eyes, different heart, different senses.

Rose hit a switch on the wall and the lights dimmed. He could barely see her walking across the room to him, and his heart rose to his throat when he felt her crawling toward him on the bed. Even in the dark he could see the fire in her eyes. She straddled him and leaned down to kiss him. She tasted like strawberry (her favorite) and smelled like heaven. Rose drew a line of kisses in lipstick down his neck and explored his collarbone, and his breath hitched in his throat and came out in small bursts. Still he could not speak. His new human sense of touch, though less sensitive than a Time Lord's, was completely new, and he was hyperaware of every spot where Rose's skin came in contact with his own. Her skin was slightly cooler than his. Chills raised up when Rose's manicured fingernails stroked his hair. Finally he found words.

"Oh, Rose," he gasped, and rolled her over so she was underneath him, growling. He returned the favor, gently biting her neck and relishing in her involuntary noises while she writhed underneath him. Rose took his hand and guided it down her body, coaxing him to pull off her underwear. The Doctor growled again when he noticed they were already soaking wet. Without breaking the kiss, he expertly slid them down her legs and tossed them across the room. He lifted her legs and Rose moaned audibly as he entered her, taken by surprise at his girth. Rose clutched at the Doctor's back, her nails digging into his skin, one hand on the back of his neck.

Within a split second Rose's mind reached out for his, and he didn't resist. This time, Rose's sensations enhanced his own. Their rhythm increased with wild abandon. Neither one cared who heard them, and neither one knew how long they remained intertwined. Rose occasionally spoke his name in an ethereal voice, and the Doctor held her tighter. Long red welts formed on his back from Rose's fingernails, but he didn't pay them any notice. It wasn't until dawn was breaking that they both climaxed together, drenched in sweat and crying out in ecstasy.

They fell asleep in each other's arms at dawn. Rose fell asleep first, and the Doctor listened to her ragged breathing deepen and her heart slow down until she drifted off. He stroked her sweat-soaked hair and wiped the streaked mascara from her eyes. Almost immediately after his head hit the cool pillow, he was asleep.

::-::-::

The Doctor jolted awake precisely at noon. Rose was sprawled out beside him, in one of her usual comical sleeping positions. He rolled to his side to look at her, and his back protested. He reached around and felt his back – several thin scratches, about ten inches each, were scattered all over his lower and middle back. He smiled. _That's a first_, he thought, and chuckled.


	12. Chapter 12

"Stop watching me sleep," Rose groaned, a smile playing on her lips. She opened her eyes, and when the light cleared she saw the Doctor's black hair adorably spiked up on one side. A small giggle escaped her before she could stop it. "You look well-rested, for once. How did you sleep?"

The Doctor didn't know what to say. The night he had spent with Rose, his second in this parallel universe, was one of the best in his life (_was_ it his life?) and for once, despite all he had been through and all he had lost, Rose had made him feel wholly, astonishingly _alive_. His eyes followed Rose's curves down the bed to her feet and smiled back at her. "Like a dream."

Rose admired his crooked smile. She knew he wasn't used to sleeping very much, but she could get used to seeing him like this, hair rumpled and sleep still lingering in his eyes. His lanky, yet still muscular, body was only half-covered by her comforter, and he was supporting his head on his arm.

Their short moment of intimacy was interrupted with a squeal of joy that gave them a fraction of a second's warning before 30 pounds of bouncing toddler leaped into their bed.

"Tony! I _told_ you to knock before coming in here! Sorry, loves, he's a bundle of energy today." Jackie's hair was mussed and Pete still had his dressing robe on, but Tony had apparently been up for some time and had dressed himself before waking his parents up – he was comically mismatched but still cute. The trio finally left the bedroom, the Doctor and Rose suppressing a laugh at the adorable boy.

Rose rolled over on her stomach, propping her head up to look at the Doctor. "I want to get that TARDIS coral out of the zeppelin today, and maybe we can figure out how to get it to grow. Do you remember what Donna said about that? We don't exactly have thousands of years to wait."

"No, we don't." The Doctor laughed softly at that idea – before now, thousands of years seemed like nothing in his life span, but now he had but one life to live. "Since the TARDIS gets its power from the universe itself, I think all I have to do is introduce it to _this_ universe's energy, tweak it a little bit, and hopefully it should take off growing. That reminds me," he sat up and furrowed his eyebrows, "does this Torchwood have alien technology just like the other one? I could really use it."

Rose nodded. "Yeah, lots of stuff. We can go by there today if you want to." She smiled and wiggled her legs like an eager child.

"Sounds like a plan," he said. He planted a quick kiss on Rose's forehead and leaped out of the bed, nearly tripping over his own feet to get to the closet. "I want to show you something. Go make some tea and I'll surprise you."

"What is it?"

"I _told_ you, it's a surprise. Now out you get." He shooed her out of the bed and into the hall, practically giddy with excitement, and winked at her before closing the door.

Rose padded down the hall into the kitchen and readied the tea kettle, waiting for the Doctor to show her whatever it was he was hiding. So distracted she was, that she accidentally spooned salt into her tea instead of sugar, and she spit it out in surprise right when the Doctor rounded the corner. When she saw him, her jaw dropped and the salty cup of tea hit the floor.

Standing in the doorway to the kitchen was a man that Rose had known for years now, just as she remembered him. Leaning leisurely against the door frame was the Doctor, fully dressed in a brown and blue pinstripe suit, a blue paisley tie, a long light brown duster, and red Chuck Taylors. His hair was spiked on the top, and he had black-framed reading glasses perched high on his nose. Rose could barely breathe at the sight of him.

"You – you look… " Rose stuttered, trying to find the words, and her eyes welled up with tears. The Doctor rushed over to her, worried.

"I'm sorry, was this too much?" He was afraid it would remind her of the Time Lord, which could prove to be too painful for her. Rose shook her head.

"Not at all, I love it," Rose insisted, wiping a tear from her cheek and smiling. "Just like old times. All you need is a sonic, huh?" She gave a small laugh, and the Doctor dipped her into a kiss, quite literally sweeping her off of her feet.

::-::-::

"Just remember that these people haven't met you, and they're different than the ones back home. Oh, and there are more people than back home. You know about Gwen, and the other guy's name was Ianto. The other two are Tosh and Owen. There's no Jack here, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that." They both laughed at the truth of that last statement, and the large steel doors opened before them. "This," Rose gestured at the room in front of them, "is Torchwood."

The Doctor gazed around at all of the equipment and computers around him. "I thought Gwen and – what was his name, Ianto? – were in Cardiff."

"Yes, they were for a while, but they took over Torchwood London after the battle at Canary Wharf. They trained new people to work at Cardiff. What's the coral piece doing?" Rose pointed at the coral in the Doctor's hand – it was beginning to project a faint yellow glow.


	13. Chapter 13

"Is there a time rift in Cardiff here too? We might have to go there." The Doctor looked sideways at Rose, who was staring at the now-glowing TARDIS coral, mouth agape. Tosh flitted around the room to various computers, and none of them seemed to recognize the Time Lord technology.

"I dunno. I think so, though," Rose replied. "Is there, Tosh?"

Toshiko, engrossed in the coral, didn't hear them. Rose cleared her throat and repeated the question.

"Tosh! I said, is there a time rift in Cardiff?"

She jerked her head up from the computer and apologized. "Sorry, yeah, there is. How did you – right, I forgot. Rose told us you'd know more than we could bargain for." She ducked back down to the computer, her eyebrows furrowed so much her eyes were nearly shut.

"Could we, uh, have the coral back?" The Doctor smiled at her, hoping to lighten Tosh up, but she picked it up and held it over her head without looking up from the computer. Rose took it from her and turned to talk to Owen.

"Owen, I'm gonna take the Doctor to storage. He needs to take a look at the equipment we've picked up. He'll probably be able to tell us more than I could, since he's seen a lot more than I have." Owen nodded, pressing the button to open the door to an adjacent room, and Rose led the Doctor by the hand to the spiral staircase that led several stories underground. The TARDIS coral was growing warmer, and its golden glow had begun to spiral up her arm. The Doctor pointed this out to her when they got to the storage room.

"Why is it doing that, Doctor? It's weird."

"I have no idea. TARDIS growth was a closely-guarded secret back on Gallifrey, and they took so long to grow that sometimes it would take up to two or three Time Lords to grow just one. I'm going to look at these devices and see if any of them can help us."

Rose sat the coral piece on an empty spot on a table and examined it while the Doctor fiddled around with a few pieces of alien tech. She felt as if it was drawing her closer, and she couldn't fight the urge to touch it again. Before she knew what was happening, Rose's mind reached out and instantly linked with the coral, and the Doctor turned around and watched with both horror and curiosity as the coral projected its glow directly into her eyes.

"Rose! ROSE! Are you all right?" He rushed over to her, and before he could so much as touch her Rose held out her hand and pushed him away with the force of the golden light. It knocked him backward into a shelf and froze him in place when he hit the ground.

Inside Rose's mind was the whole of time and space – all that was, all that ever could be – and her head swam with the weight of it. She was unable to break free. Nanoseconds passed that felt like years, and she was shown the creation of the universe, individual formation of solar systems, evolution of billions of species, and finally the familiar blue box the original coral had grown into. At last it showed her an image of herself, just as she was now, locked onto the coral piece. Music flowed into her mind and Rose saw the coral getting bigger, her brain flashing with swirling circles and numbers that somehow made sense. Her head started to hurt and she could barely make out the Doctor's muffled voice shouting at her. She opened her mouth to scream, but try as she might, Rose couldn't utter a sound. She felt as if her head might burst and tears were running down her face.

At long last the coral piece let her free, the golden glow vanishing back into it without a trace. Rose stumbled backward and hit the cold concrete floor. Her eyes were closed. The Doctor, able to move now, dashed across the room to her, squatting down on the floor and gently placing her head in his lap. He stroked the side of her face.

"Rose, can you hear me?" She nodded to him and a wave of relief washed over him. "What happened? It looked like the coral piece connected with you."

Rose opened her eyes and they glowed with the same golden light. Words came out of her in a language the Doctor thought he would never hear again, secrets his Elders had sworn to keep, and he snapped his fingers at the Torchwood members that had now gathered around them. "Get me a pen and paper, now!" Tosh scrambled around and gave them to him, and the Doctor leaned closer to Rose to listen. His fingers flew across the scraps of paper, drawing circles and arcs and lines that no one but him could understand. Rose spoke like this for another two minutes and the Doctor had filled several pages with notes in Gallifreyan circles before she stopped and sat straight up, bewildered.

"What happened?" Her eyes darted around the room, confused. "Did I pass out or something?"

"Rose," the Doctor began slowly, "what's the last thing you remember?"

Rose scratched her head in thought. "I remember sitting the coral piece down on the table, and then I woke up surrounded by you lot." She furrowed her eyebrows, looking around again. "Why _am _I surrounded by you lot anyway?"

The Doctor didn't answer, instead directing his attention to the members of Torchwood. "I'm going to take her home, she needs some rest." They stared at him in disbelief, but cleared the room anyway. "Can you stand?" His question was directed at Rose, who tried to get up but her legs were unsteady. "I'll carry to you to the car," he stated resolutely, and began putting the pieces of paper he had written on into his duster's pockets.

"When will you tell me what's going on?" Rose sat in the passenger's seat of her car, her arms crossed stubbornly across her chest. "Don't make me call Mum. She'll get it out of you." Her threat seemed to come across; the Doctor's eyes widened and he turned down the radio.

"I don't know how it happened or why, but your mind connected with the TARDIS coral. It started glowing and the glow went into your eyes and about ten seconds later it let you go and you spouted off in Gallifreyan. I wrote everything I could down and put the paper in my pockets. I think the coral told you how to make it grow in this universe, from what I could make out. " He didn't look away from the road, but Rose stared at him, willing him to look at her. She sat in silence for several minutes before forming her reply.

"Oh."

The Doctor glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. "Oh? You're the first human to ever _see_ a TARDIS coral, let alone connect with it, and you say '_oh_'?"

"What do you want me to say? Where are we going, anyway?" Rose noticed they weren't headed the usual direction she took back to Tyler Manor.

"Cardiff. That's where the rift is – that's where we can set the TARDIS coral up for growth, according to what it told you." Rose saw that the Doctor had the coral piece clutched in one hand.

"Doctor, I feel like my body is running a thousand miles an hour but I'm sitting still. I need to get rid of this energy." A thought hit her, and she smiled at him. "I know a way I can burn off some energy."

Before the Doctor could say anything about it, Rose unbuckled her seatbelt and stretched her body across the front seat, ducking down below the windshield and fumbling with the zipper on his trousers.

"W – what are you – OH!" The final syllable came out with a gasp; Rose had taken the head of his cock into her mouth and it was quickly responding to her touch. "Rose, I – I'm driving!" His breathing became ragged and he struggled to focus on the road. Rose took his length into her mouth and expertly worked her tongue around it as it became harder. The Doctor didn't want her to stop, and it felt incredible, the adrenaline rush of driving with Rose between his legs, but he was afraid he would swerve and run off of the road. "Let me pull over." He tapped on the brakes and Rose came up for air.

"No," Rose demanded. "Pull over and I'll stop."

The Doctor pressed on the gas pedal again, speeding up, and Rose laughed playfully. She sat straight up again and unzipped her jeans, sliding them and her knickers off in one swift motion. Climbing across the front seat again, she straddled the Doctor's hips without blocking his view and gasped with pleasure when she sat down firmly and felt his cock slide into her. The Doctor's eyes widened again and he grunted. "Rose, we're gonna crash if you're not careful! You better be glad we – we're on a back r – ROAD!" His head rolled back and he let out a moan when she began moving her hips and he looked up just in time to move the car back into their lane. "Rose, I – I don't think I'm gonna last v – very long…"

"Just enjoy it, Doctor."

Rose's rhythm sped up but she was careful to keep the Doctor's view of the road unobstructed. Her head was tucked into the crook of his neck and she gently nibbled on the delicate skin there, making him shiver. The Doctor's heart was racing, and the adrenaline combined with the thrill of the danger brought on his release that much faster. It took less than three minutes before he and Rose came at the same time, the pair of them shouting in ecstasy. Finally the Doctor was able to pull over and he tossed the TARDIS coral into the back seat so Rose could get her jeans back on. The two of them laughed raucously at themselves and Rose leaned back into her seat when she got her clothes back on. The Doctor fought with the zipper of his trousers and cursed himself for forgetting to wear boxers again.

"Much better, " Rose joked, the last bit of golden energy escaping from her skin, "Just what the doctor ordered." Rose beamed at the Doctor, who shook his head with a smile and started the car back up.

Cardiff was over an hour away, and they had the entire day to get there.


End file.
